James Bermingham (1849–1907) was a prominent "advanced nationalist" in Dublin during the last quarter of the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries.

On 13 August 1898 the Kentucky Irish American newspaper reported on a visit by James Bermingham and Mr. T. Kelly (Secretary of the Amnesty Association) to Tom Clarke (alias Henry Wilson) to Portland Prison, Dorset.

The Home Secretary had promised as much, and instead of being released, the Government had made him complete the full fifteen years and an additional six months as above stated.

These poor men are not in as good health spirits as Mr. Wilson is, and a special effort should be made to have them all released at the same time, as the effect of their comrade being gone would perhaps be the means of adding melancholy to their already prolonged sufferings.

The committee, having considered this report, decided that the Home Secretary should be written to and asked his intentions as to the remaining prisoners now in Portland.

(In 1883 Murphy, with Tom Clarke and others, was sentenced to penal servitude for life at the Old Bailey for allegedly planning a bombing campaign in England.

The remittance which Mr. Bermingham was entrusted with was forwarded to Mr. Egan in New York payable to Mr. Whitehead on his arrival" In early October 1898 James Bermingham and Michael Lambert, on behalf of the Amnesty Association, welcomed Tom Clarke (alias Henry Wilson) back to Ireland on his arrival at the North Wall, Dublin, on board the SS Banshee after Clarke's release for prison in England.

On 21 October 1898 the Irish National Amnesty Association paraded Clarke and two other released prisoners (John Henry O'Connor and Edward O'Brien Kennedy) from 41 York Street through the city to the Round Room of the Rotunda.

The Freeman's Journal (22 October 1898) described the procession as follows: "National music was rendered by several fife and drum bands, and flags and banners were borne by many of the contingents taking part.

Hundreds of torches were carried in the procession, and their brilliant glare lighted up the streets and showed the great dimensions of the meeting and the immense crowds of spectators that gathered on either side of the roadway"The centenary celebrations of the 1798 Rising was seen by advanced nationalists as an opportunity to revive republican sentiment, and United Irishmen Centennial committees were set up throughout the country to organise commemorative events.

A big demonstration culminating in the laying of the foundation stone of a proposed Wolfe Tone memorial in the middle of the road at the junction of Grafton Street and St. Stephen's Green took place on Monday 15 August 1898.

[7] Maud Gonne wrote of meeting James Bermingham at the laying of the foundation stone of the Wolfe Tone Memorial in St. Stephen's Green, Dublin, on 15 August 1898.

From the start of the Irish National Amnesty Association in the Workmen’s Club, York street, of which latter he was always one of the mainstays, he was one of its most earnest members.

In later years the deceased gentleman acted as a member of the South Dublin Board of Guardians, in which he rendered quiet but effective work.